The present invention relates to remotely-controlled systems for treating external surfaces of buildings and, more particularly, to remotely-controlled systems which make it possible to paint, wash and carry out other treatments of the outside of a building, including the outside of its windows.
Tall buildings are quite commonplace, especially in heavily populated areas. The external surfaces of such buildings must occasionally be treated for aesthetic and/or functional reasons. For example, it is desirable to periodically clean the outside surfaces of the building windows, which windows often form an integral part of the building exterior and cannot be accessed from inside the building. It may also from time to time be desirable to clean surfaces other than the windows. Similarly, it may be desired to paint or otherwise coat portions of the exterior surface of buildings.
A number of techniques are used in order to gain access to the building exterior for the purpose of effecting any of the above-mentioned treatments, among others. A very small fraction of buildings are designed with external access ways surrounding each floor which can accommodate a worker. However, the vast preponderance of buildings, for reasons of cost and/or architectural aesthetic considerations, do not feature such access ways.
To treat the external surfaces of buildings lacking external access ways, one normally relies on scaffolding capable of accommodating one or more workers. For large undertakings, such as the repainting of the exterior of a building, weeks may be required to erect the necessary scaffolding.
For smaller jobs, such as the cleaning of exterior windows, a small scaffold platform may be supported by cables which are attached to an appropriate securing device secured at the roof of the building. A motor located on the roof or on the platform is used to raise and lower the scaffold platform. The securing device can be moved as necessary to the appropriate location on the roof so as to allow access of workers on the platform to the precise portion of the building exterior to be treated. Some buildings feature a series of permanently installed securing devices located at desired locations along the roof, which obviates the need to move and redeploy a mobile anchoring device.
A difficulty shared by all the above-described techniques is that each requires a worker to work in the immediate vicinity of the portion of the exterior surface of the building being treated. This involves a number of disadvantages. First, the worker is exposed to various dangers such as the danger of falling off the platform or access way because of external forces, such as winds. Such accidents can also come about as a result of human error, induced by the highly constrained space in which the worker must operate. In addition, use of the above-described techniques puts the worker in very close proximity to the cleaning and painting materials which are being used, thereby exposing the worker to potentially dangerous materials. The adverse effects of inhaling various chemicals, such as paints, are well known. Finally, the work involved is, by its nature, highly repetitive and mechanical, which may detrimentally affect the speed and/or quality of the job done by a human worker.
There is thus a widely recognized need for a system for treating the outside surfaces of buildings which can be controlled remotely without requiring the presence of a human worker in close proximity of the surface being treated.
It would be desirable and highly advantageous to have a system which could be readily deployed to quickly and efficiently treat, as by washing, painting, etc., the exterior surfaces of virtually any building, without the need to locate one or more workers in the immediate vicinity of the portion of the building exterior being treated.